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While this person is parleying with the chief of the servants, Lord Holchester, passing from one room to another, happens to cross the inner end of the hall. The person instantly darts at him with a cry of "Dear Lord Holchester!" Julius turns, and sees Lady Lundie! He is fairly caught, and he gives way with his best grace.
At the hour appointed for leaving the cottage to pay the promised visit to Holchester House, Hester Dethridge and Geoffrey were alone together in the bedroom in which Anne had passed the night. "She's dressed, and waiting for me in the front garden," said Geoffrey. "You wanted to see me here alone. What is it?" Hester pointed to the bed. "You want it moved from the wall?" Hester nodded her head.
As before, Lady Holchester replies "Sir Patrick went abroad, Lady Lundie, with his niece and her husband; and Sir Patrick has come back with them." "In good health?" her ladyship inquires. "Younger than ever," Lady Holchester rejoins. Lady Lundie smiles satirically. Lady Lundie waits eagerly to hear what the news is.
Her ladyship drops back on the sofa; helpless really and truly helpless, under the double blow that has fallen on her. "At his age!" she exclaims, as soon as she can speak. "Pardon me for reminding you," Lady Holchester answers, "that plenty of men marry at Sir Patrick's age. In his case, it is only due to him to say that his motive raises him beyond the reach of ridicule or reproach.
Say that I bring him a message from Holchester House, and that I can only deliver it at a personal interview." Hester Dethridge returned to the cottage. Another, and a longer interval elapsed. At the end of the time, Geoffrey himself appeared in the front garden, with the key in his hand. Anne's heart throbbed fast as she saw him unlock the gate, and asked herself what was to follow.
With that conviction in him, he had sent his message to Lady Holchester, and was now waiting for the reply. The servant appeared again on the stairs. Sir Patrick went up to meet him. "Her ladyship will see you, Sir, for a few minutes." The door of an upper room was opened; and Sir Patrick found himself in the presence of Geoffrey's mother.
Following the servant to the other end of the corridor, Sir Patrick was conducted into a small room the ante-chamber to the bedroom in which Lord Holchester lay. The door of communication was closed. A gentleman sat writing at a table near the window. He rose, and held out his hand, with a look of surprise, when the servant announced Sir Patrick's name. This was Mr. Marchwood.
"Some motive I'm hiding from you?" he repeated, with his head down, and his utterance thicker than ever. "I'm ready to have my motive posted all over London, if you like. I'm fond of her." He looked up as he said the last words. Lady Holchester turned away her head recoiling from her own son. So overwhelming was the shock inflicted on her that even the strongly rooted prejudice which Mrs.
Suspicious of any thing and every thing, she felt a sudden distrust of letting herself be seen. She drew back behind the curtain and looked out. A man-servant, in livery, was let in. He had a letter in his hand. He said to the girl as he passed Anne's window, "I come from Lady Holchester; I must see Mr. Delamayn instantly." They went in. There was an interval.
"The course they took at the time of our family trial the sympathy they felt with a Person whom I can not even now trust myself to name more particularly alienated us from each other. I may be grieved, dear Lady Holchester; but I bear no malice. And I shall always feel a motherly interest in hearing of Blanche's welfare.
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